Medical association and ad platform partner for in-meeting messaging

Doctors who attend the American College of Chest Physicians' meetings will now receive targeted messaging on their mobile devices from advertisers on non-medical websites.

This represents a new way for medical associations to diversify their revenue stream and it also opens up new channels by which to target healthcare professionals.

The American College of Chest Physicians announced a new partnership with Social Reality, an advertising platform provider that delivers targeted ads to healthcare professionals attending the ACCP's meetings. It's Social Reality's first formal partnership with a medical association.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We're able to target physical locations, be it hotels or convention centers within a 100-meter radius using cellular data and inside the building utilizing IP or WiFi targeting to meetings, hotel and practice locations,” explained Erin DeRuggiero, Social Reality's co-founder and chief innovations officer.

Physicians are not individually targeted. Instead, the platform targets specific spots and serves them in-app and mobile web banners. The ads show up on non-endemic, or non-medical content, like sports or news websites. Doctors may check these sources more frequently than they look at a medical journal's website.

Inventory on Social Reality is sold through its own programmatic platform.

Robert Musacchio, SVP of business development for the American College of Chest Physicians, said in a release that the platform provides “an additional source of revenue from pharma ads,” while providing physicians with “beneficial” information about the latest treatments.

“An HCP might be on a medical journal site once a month, but they are browsing 12 other sites within any given 24-hour period,” added DeRuggiero.

Physician attendees have the ability to opt out of the ads. There are also frequency caps in place “so as not to be intrusive or excessive,” she said.

The American College of Chest Physicians has more than 18,700 members in over 100 countries. The group advocates for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chest diseases.